What an emotional gut-punch! I am a total sucker for books about artificially intelligent characters and the discussion of their sentience of lack thereof, so this was right up my alley. I found the writing style to have a subdued, concise, yet beautiful and lyrical quality, which I enjoyed very much. The characters felt real; flawed, yet still likeable. I think the character of Adam will standout as one of the most memorable AI characters I have read. I thought the ending was wonderfully done - it was perfectly tragic, yet with a dash of hopefulness. The only criticism I would give is that the alternate history aspect of the book felt a bit odd and took me out of the flow of the story a few times, although I do think the political aspects of the book added to the level of social commentary given by the author. Those sections highlighted the feeling of unease when it comes to the way our world is changing, and the role artificial intelligence plays in that. In a way, I also see the alternate timeline as a way to show that this sort of political turmoil is intrinsic to humanity, so the details and facts almost don't matter, we would have this sort of chaos in human society regardless of what path history took due to our inability to think "symmetrically" and logically as AI do. In all, I think this book is a wonderful choice for anyone looking for a melancholic, haunting, thought-provoking literary novel.